Many flood victims still face 'problems beyond their ability'

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Rebuilding lives

Many flood victims still face 'problems beyond their ability'

Sunday February 17, 2002

By Tara Tuckwiller

STAFF WRITER

MULLENS - Sewage spews from the hillsides once more, straight into streams

and rivers from here to McDowell County.

Gleaming white plastic pipes protrude proudly from lawn after flood-trashed

lawn, replacing their predecessors that got swept away July 8. In these

neighborhoods, everyone gets to see - and drink - what you've flushed down

the toilet.

From Wyoming County sanitarian Rick Baldridge's standpoint, it's the worst

problem flood victims face.

" People end up drinking their own sewage, " he said. Not to mention the black

mold and mildew that festers in people's walls and lungs, even in federally

subsidized rental housing across the coalfields. Not that that's any of

Baldridge's business, legally.

" There is no health code for housing, " he said. " Unless there's a major

problem with rats or something, I have no business being in somebody's

home. "

If the flood zone doesn't get proper sewers, it will never see any

development or better quality of life - " And that's including when the

Coalfield Expressway comes through, " Baldridge said.

But Baldridge hasn't seen any interest in proper rural sewage of any kind,

either from state or local politicians, in his 20 years as Wyoming County

sanitarian or his lifetime of living in the area.

In fact, he saw local politicians get a gift of three hand-me-down sewage

package treatment plants from a government project right before the flood -

and sell them for scrap metal.

Since the flood, Baldridge has inspected the sewage plans of close to 500

residences. How many passed?

" Maybe 50. Maybe 75, " he said. Not that that stops anyone from doing

whatever they please with their human waste.

" Most of 'em just want to put a 55-gallon drum in the ground and let the

sewage run, " he said.

Baldridge doesn't feel he has any political backing for his efforts, even

though they're mandated by law.

" I hope to not be here in the next month, " he said. " I care about the

people, but you can only butt your head against a brick wall for so long. "

Baldridge said he's physically exhausted from trying to make the flood zone

fit for humans to live in. And he's tired of having people scream and cuss

him out for his efforts.

" People down here are as tense as I have ever seen people in my life, " he

said. " And me, too. "

The housing merry-go-round

D.R. and Jaci Barker have never even heard of Rick Baldridge. But they use

almost the exact same words to describe their lives since the flood washed

away their Fayette County home.

" You wouldn't believe the stress level, " said D.R., a soft-spoken,

47-year-old disabled veteran. " Me and her get in arguments sometimes, and I

know it's from the flood. From being stuck out and lost. It's awful. "

For D.R. and Jaci, the stress boils from the housing merry-go-round they've

been on since July 8.

They're better off now than many - because D.R.'s disabled, they scored a

sought-after three-room apartment in a well-kept federal apartment complex

in ers - but they had some hard times getting there.

After they hiked out of Kanawha Falls on a railroad track half-dangling in

midair, the couple stayed with their daughter in Gauley Bridge. Then Red

Cross found them a rental house in Bentree, and FEMA and Red Cross paid the

rent, since the two live on a fixed income and had just sunk their $30,000

life savings into fixing up their house right before the flood.

Everything was nice, until one day FEMA called up and asked: " Is this your

permanent housing? " D.R. had to reply, " I don't know. " He'd gotten only

$6,000 from FEMA for his ruined house, and half his land had washed away.

So FEMA asked again: " Well, until you get back on your property, is this

your permanent housing? " D.R. replied, " Well, yes. " Unfortunately, that

meant FEMA stopped paying the rent.

" It was a trick question, " he said. They got it straightened out with FEMA,

but that made their rent three days late. Even though Jaci had called the

landlady the day the rent was due and told her it would be arriving shortly,

they were evicted.

The landlady gave them a deadline to vacate: two days before Christmas.

They took too long to find another place. The landlady sued them for a

month's rent, even though it was more than covered by the $500 deposit,

which she also wanted to keep.

The landlady lost the case, but not before the Barkers spent hundreds of

dollars and a month of Sundays fighting it.

Eight months ago, the Barkers lived in an eight-room house that had been in

Jaci's family for generations, with plenty of room and yard for big family

gatherings.

Now, they have a tiny apartment with exactly two windows. They're grateful,

but they miss their old life.

" There's nothing like a home, " Jaci said.

Mold, damaged roofs, unsafe water, no heat

In Kimball, people are helping themselves. In a bottom that looked and

smelled like the apocalypse in July, one elderly lady is almost ready to

move back into her house.

" She has a son in Toledo, Ohio, " said her neighbor, Hazzard Jr. " Ever

since the flood, he'd come in on Thursday, work all weekend and leave

Monday. Just routine, routine, routine. "

" Work " meant lugging chest-high, stinking, diseased mud out of the basement

in 5-gallon buckets; pressure-washing and sanitizing every wall, floor and

ceiling to stave off the insidious mold; then replacing ruined walls,

flooring and furniture.

Hazzard did it in his parents' house. But Hazzard owns a contracting

company, and has a little more money than many of his neighbors.

Two of his neighbors have lived all winter in camper trailers, the kind you

pull behind your truck. Hazzard lived in one for a while, before FEMA warned

him to get out.

" They said it was a fire hazard, that they were not designed for this

climate, " he said. As for the neighbors? " I think you can sign a waiver. "

In Fayette and counties, the problems are identical.

" We have families that cannot afford to move and are continuing to live in

unsafe housing with mold, damaged flooring, damaged foundation, damaged

roofs, unsafe water supply, sewage problems, insufficient or absence of any

heat or safe heat, " said Selina Vickers, chairwoman of the Fayette/

flood recovery team.

Yes, some people can help themselves. But Southern West Virginia is full of

children, disabled and elderly people who cannot, Vickers said.

" Many living structures were already in poor shape [before the flood], as

were many of the families living in them, " she said.

" Depressed, broke, out of work, hungry, suffering from a wide range of

health problems - black lung, cancer, heart disease ... very impoverished

people with limited access to resources.

" Now, these same people are faced with ongoing problems ... beyond their

ability to deal with. People are having to navigate vast and rigid

bureaucracies with many confusing and unclear layers that survivors have to

peel away to get help. "

'Homes you would not want animals to reside in'

Flood victims still need help, Vickers said. First and foremost? Housing.

" It is not enough to patch a roof on a home that is about to fall down

around the family inside, " she said. " We must fix these homes from the

ground up.

" Also, there are too few affordable housing alternatives for renters, who

are living in flooded homes you would not want animals to reside in. "

The flood recovery team listed several areas in which the state could help

the flood zone:

FEMA. " Advocate to FEMA to reopen the registration, " Vickers said. " Some

families did not know that they would be eligible for FEMA and did not

register in time. " And some problems, such as mold growth and buckling

foundations, didn't occur until months after the flood.

FEMA registrations closed three months after the last flood, but FEMA

extended them to six months for World Trade Center victims. And Manhattan's

an affluent, highly educated, dense population - not a rural, spread-out

population with poor education and literacy, Vickers said.

" We do not begrudge the FEMA extension to victims of 9/11, but we would like

to have it reopen here, " she said.

Money. " We are looking at, just in Fayette County, the need for at least

half a million dollars, just to address the basic needs of residents, "

Vickers said. " In addition, we need to pay staff to outreach and provide

case management to 500 families we have identified with unmet needs.

" The county could also use several million dollars for mitigation and to do

the unfinished business of shoring up many dangerous creek and stream banks.

This just cannot all be achieved with private and charity money.

" There are many volunteer groups willing to come to the flood areas and

provide qualified, free labor. However, where will the money come from to

purchase the materials? "

Without safe, sanitary housing for families, the flood zone will never see

economic growth again, Vickers said.

" We need an infusion of state and federal money, and we need it now. "

Advertising. Every flooded county has a flood recovery team, but people

might not know about them. Also, FEMA won't release flood victims' names for

privacy reasons, so the recovery teams can't reach out to them.

" I would like to see the state work out, through the attorney general,

interagency agreements with FEMA, the Red Cross and other disaster services

that, in the event of a disaster, these agencies would assist in compiling a

database of disaster victims to be owned by the state, " Vickers said. " There

is a similar database now in New York. "

Prevention. " Homes and communities must be moved, " Vickers said. " As long

as people live in these floodplains, because the land is cheap and

available, they will be flooded. ... I want the state to look at reclaimed

mine and timber land to relocate homes and communities. "

At 2 p.m. Monday, there will be a public hearing at the Capitol on a flood

prevention bill sponsored by Sen. Larry Rowe, D-Kanawha. He wants the state

to establish a flood prevention agency.

" We have no state agency in charge of flood prevention, " he said.

" You can't say this is some surprise event. It's going to happen again. All

you've got to do is have the rainfall on the hills. "

Besides, people like the Barkers saw the abandoned treetops wash down off

the logged mountainsides, clogging the culverts that had handled every heavy

rain for years. They know their hollows never flooded this badly for 50

years, until someone strip-mined the hillside above.

Vickers wants some assurance that all the studies into the role strip mining

and logging played in the flood won't be for naught.

" I want someone with the guts to step forward and say all this studying,

money spending, consulting, planning and reporting will not be without

concrete results, " she said.

" Not just more talk and reports the state is content to let sit in dusty,

abandoned file cabinets. "

To contact staff writer Tara Tuckwiller, use e-mail or call 348-